Nevertheless, if Freud isn’t your thing, sonically, you can most definitely appreciate all their pretty songs. Perhaps this Freudian psychoanalysis is unhealthy, yet knowing people care enough to dig that deep, is a testament to how much listeners care about the group. To this day, people continue to try and decipher what Kurt was trying to say in his music a tactic which very much displeased him at the time. The lyrics also attributed to the mythology of the band, bringing the audience closer to Kurt due to themes such as religion, romance, and alienation. The album, whilst cryptic, conveyed a charm that made it cool to be sensitive, showcasing the frontman as more than just a “rockstar”. Although Cobain attested to putting melody before lyrics, you can call his bluff with songs such as “Polly”, “Something in the Way”, and “In Bloom”. What set Nirvana apart from their mainstream contemporaries was a brutal honesty in lyricism. The new songs found Kurt plumbing the emotional depths of his own life for material and writing about the characters around him. No hair metal for these boys, a steady diet of The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, The Melvins, Sex Pistols, and The Vaselines will do. In other words, the group was more preoccupied with making music they enjoyed than in partaking in the trends of the day.
One could argue this change screams “sellout”, yet even with their biggest song, Smells Like Teen Spirit, the format goes against the grain of traditional pop standards. The world was ready to bear witness to the catchy style of About A Girl, on a grand scale with the band’s major-label debut. Comprised of punk tunes that complemented Cobain’s pop sensibility, the group changed distinctively from the grunge sound of Bleach and brought a new “Loud, Quiet” dynamic into their music (a style attributed previously to the Pixies).
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